As we're facing the 2-year anniversary of that monumental presidential election, I've been looking back at how we've handled some societal growing pains, or better, how we've avoided them. Has anyone been noticing the casual racist comments and answers to innocuous, harmless questions by white males lately. Veteran Bristish rocker, Robert Plant, referred to R&B music as "spook music" in a routine question on The Today Show when asked about his musical influences back in September. He, who has made a great deal of fortune and fame from African American music, thought nothing of casually throwing around this repugnant term. The interviewer, who didn't even appear shocked and follow up with a question for him to explain what he meant, went on like nothing strange was just said. And of course he made no statement of apology because he was never challenged or questioned about his comment, so he went on with his day. Then recently Mr. Rick Sanchez lost his job with CNN after spewing some venom about about Jon Stewart and Jewish people in the media. But people may forget that he referred to Barack Obama as "the cotton-picking President" not too long ago. He later apologized and went on with his day.
Does anyone remember the comment by CBS news anchor Dan Rather on the The Chris Matthews Show back in the spring. He was discussing Obama's healthcare reform and his ability to get things done when he said "Obama couldn't sell watermelons if it, you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic." He also later apologized and went about his day.
And let's not forget Rock musician, John Mayer, who made a jack-ass of himself in Playboy last spring with his comments about his "nigger pass" rather than it being a "hood pass" and his unattraction to black women. The second part of his offensive remarks were about John Mayer trying to be ironic and witty as he stupidly made reference to his little package as a "David Duke D***". The short of it was-he's not attracted to black women. OK. Like sisters are home heartbroken cause his punk a** ain't checking for them. But I was a little taken aback because he's been the undisputed King of Girlie Rock for the last 8 years or so making very lyrically sensitive, mature music. Yet, he showed us his true feelings with his disrespect for black people. This after the interviewer commented, with some curiousity, about all the love he's gotten from black fans. Hmmm. He took some flack, mostly kept his mouth shut and went on about his day. And now he's doing commercials with Jay-Z selling something, I can't even remember what cause I change the channel whenever its on. Remember the LeBron James media fiasco that truly got on my nerves but clearly made some people more than a little irate. He was in fact treated like a runaway slave by the Cavalier's owner in that ridiculous, bitter letter and to some extent by the sports media that villified a generally classy young man who dared to exercise his power as a brand and product.
And I would be remiss if I failed to mention talk-radio's Dr. Laura Schlessinger and her angry, ignorant ass with her on-air attack of a black woman married to a white man asking for advice on how to handle racism in her own home. Needless to say the caller should know how to handle some bullsh** like that, but okay she called Dr. Laura and wanted to know what to do. Instead of Dr. Laura giving her a calm clinical answer, she goes on a racial rant full of diatribes and insults that were personal and political. She couldn't even handle a question from a black woman dealing with white racism so she starts to attack the NAACP, defiantly repeats the word "nigger" over and over, and cites comics on HBO who use the word "nigger" as if that excused these people in the caller's story who were disrespecting her, and her husband who didn't know how to be a man and speak up for his wife in his own home.
My theory is this: Yes we have the first Black President because of the perfect storm of economic events that made Barack Hussein Obama the only rational choice. And yes, many, many white people voted for him. It was monumental and many of us still have to pinch ourselves. But I think these recent, openly racist casual comments from musicians to journalists leave me feeling that many, many people (mostly white males) are subconsciously, and consciously, showing just how uncomfortable they are with the president of the free world being a black man. I don't think these many statements all within, say 6 months, have ever been so flagrant and constant. The Village Voice's recent cover story entitled "White America Has Lost Its Mind" by Steven Thrasher, was primarily focused on the conservative movement, Fox News, the tea party and the billionaire Koch Brothers. But I'm thinking some of this is more spread out and not just concentrated among the extreme right. There has always been this aversion to discussing race openly and honestly, even as we have a black president in office. It's as if white America feels like we voted for him so let's stop all this talk about racism. It's over, the reparations are paid, now move on. So there's no substantive conversation about race and racism. Nobody I know is buying that post-racial crap, so let's get on with the real dialogue, please. Just as the cavalier, racist, and just plain stupid statements highlighted earlier received a quick tongue lashing or moment of head scratching, or in Robert Plant's case not even a follow-up question, no one wants to use any of this as a jump off for some real conversations about race and racism in a country with a long violent history in its regards to non-white people. Even the tea partiers with their nasty Obama signs, the anti-brown immigration law in Arizona and the raucous protests over the Islamic Cultural Center near ground zero, which many people don't know was once the Muslim center of NYC, all have me very uncomfortable and should indicate to our many media outlets that we could use a nationally-televised conversation about race from many perspectives. If they can interrupt regular tv programming for Tiger Woods to talk about his broken marriage and mea culpa for being a cheating husband, why can't CNN or even MTV dedicate 2 hours to look at where we've come and where we are in what Tavis Smiley calls "the most multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-religious America ever."
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